ustoday.fareed zakaria "gps" starts right now. >>> this is "gps the global public square." we begin today with haiti. i want to go beyond the terrible images you've seen in the last days tragic as they are, and help us understand this tragedy and how it came to be this way. everybody surely knows by now that haiti is the poorest country in the entire western hemisphere, but that's not the whole story. you see, haiti has been marked by violence, turmoil and tragedy from the start until recently when things turned up only to be dashed by this earthquake. and that start informed the tragedies that had befallen this country ever since. so, a quick history lesson, one that i think is fascinating on its own merits and one that is essential to understanding haiti today. the island that became known as his panola was discovered by europeans when christopher columbus landed there in 1492. 200 years later in 1697, the french gained control of the western part of this island. african slaves growing sugar and coffee and tobacco there became a gold mine for the french, but then in 1791, the slav